Two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso believes Sergio Perez should’ve been awarded a 30-second time penalty for having been late to the driver’s parade, in an attempt to finish second at the Miami Grand Prix.
Alonso made the joke after Perez was summoned by the race stewards, to discover why the Mexican wasn’t on time.
The driver’s parade sees each of the competitors driven around the track whilst they wave at the fans in attendance, with Perez having been slapped with a non-driving reprimand for not following the schedule.
As a result, Alonso joked that the Mexican should’ve received a time penalty, enough so to promote him into second.
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The Aston Martin driver also insisted that he should also be awarded with a hefty time penalty, after feeding his team with the wrong information.
“30-second penalty! And for me too, because I was wrong. I told the team how long the tyres would last before the pit stop,” Alonso joked.
During his opening stint on the Medium compound, Alonso told his team “feels like a Plan A minus 12”, giving the impression he wanted to pit 12 laps earlier than planned.
Interestingly, this wasn’t actually possible, given that Alonso had already completed the number of laps which would correlate to “minus 12”.
The 41-year-old shared after the race that it was his blunder over the team radio, with the driver having gotten their different plans muddled up.
“No, I had Plan A and Plan B and I mixed them up, [so] minus 12 was not what I meant,” he told Sky Sports.
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“I said sorry a few seconds later, they understood because they were laughing. It was not possible to do minus 12 because we had already passed that lap.”
Alonso ultimately claimed third for the fourth time this season, with the Spaniard having been comfortably quicker than Mercedes and Ferrari but not fast enough to compete with Red Bull.
The positive result ensured that he maintained third in the Drivers’ Championship, with Aston Martin also still sitting second in the Constructors’ Championship after the first five races of 2023.